Quote:
Originally Posted by BrendanB
Also, keeping robots back is not wise due to copying. 217, 1114, 469, 148, and so many other good robots debuted in week 1 and 2 regionals, and some before ship date. What is keeping a team competing in week 4 or 5 to just rebuild their robot to do exactly what that team does? I don't want to see FIRST turn into a bunch of variations of the same good robot competing everywhere.
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My experience in VEX, where we have five tournaments each about a month apart in Redmond, Vancouver, and on Vancouver Island for just over 50 teams is that keeping the robots back does allow some copying. But I think that is a good thing.
It gives teams a microcosm of the real world of engineering, where you KNOW you can't stand still. The robots that won our first event in November, would have been slaughtered at our final event in March. I tell students that if someone is copying you, then that means they are one month behind you... and you better keep running if you want to stay in front... and watch out for teams that will leapfrog past you with radical new designs. We saw at least one completely brand new concept in how to play the game in our fifth and final event this year. In FRC, if you've got a good robot in Week 1, you can be pretty confident that it will be a good robot at the Championships. Not in VEX.
Of course rebuilding in VEX is pretty easy to do... the robots are all made of re-usable parts, so doing a complete re-build can cost absolutely nothing.... and the events are weeks apart, giving plenty of time to tear down, rebuild and retest.... and can be done without close adult supervision.
The FRC schedule has different constraints on it than the VEX schedule does, and thats why I'm happy to be able to play both games... but I wouldn't necessarily condemn copying or improving upon a good design as a bad thing. In fact, it is the smart thing to do!
Jason